British Go E-Journal: January 2001

Issue 38 January 2001

Tournament News

52 players met at the Marton Arms Hotel, Thornton-in Lonsdale. The winner on 5/5
was John Rickard (4 dan Cambridge), runner up was Lutz Mattner (4 dan Leeds) on
4/5. Prizes also for 5/5 to Jil Segerman (9 kyu Manchester), and for 4/5 to
Mathias Kegelmann (1 kyu Birmingham), Richard Moulds (3 kyu Manchester) and
Jason Fisher (8 kyu Birmingham). Proceeds from the tournament go to the Tim
Hazleden Memorial Fund, which was supporting the local ambulance service in
Ingleton, but now is supporting the repair fund for the local church.

28 players, including nine aged 14 or younger, took part. It was part of a chess
and go event with almost 120 competitors in total. Higher ranked players played
even games until they lost two games when the joined the handicap section.
Seong-June Kim (6 dan Cambridge) was champion with 8/9 despite losing a game to
the runner-up Mike Charles (2 dan St Albans) who scored 6/9. Age group winners
(all with 6/9) were: Under-15 - Shawn Hearn (9 kyu Berkshire Youth), Under-13 -
James Heppell (20 kyu Norwich), Under-11 - Lasse Jakobsen (30 kyu Epsom),
Under-9 - Ben Parker (35 kyu Cambridge). Other prize winners were Michael Lowe
(6 kyu Norwich) with 7 wins and Sheila Parker (18 kyu Cambridge) with 6 wins.

103 players took part in the London Open, held this year as a 7-round McMahon
tournament. 45 of them found time to play at least one game in the 9x9 event,
though no prizes were awarded in the unpopular continuous handicap event. First
at small board go was Jim Sadler (1 dan UK), second Natasha Regan (1 kyu UK) and
third Arnaud Knippel (1 dan France). The Lightning was held on the Saturday
evening. First was Seong-June Kim (6 dan UK) and second was Malcolm Schonfield
(1 dan France). Andrej Kralj (3 dan Slovenia) won the play-off for third against
Tobias Klaus (9 kyu Germany).

In the main tournament various special prizes were
given out as indicated below and the top five players received the Toyota Tour
prize money. On 5/7 were Lasse Jakobsen (best junior at 25 kyu), Bettina Rehburg
(best improver, German 9 kyu), Joakim Strom (4 kyu Sweden), Martin Gomilschak (4
kyu Austria), Albert Fenech (2 kyu France), Jim Sadler (1 dan UK), Malcolm
Schonfield (1 dan France), Matthias Bahr (2 dan Germany) and Antoine Fenech (2
dan France 5/6). Parkpoom Lekhavat (12 kyu) from Thailand was the best novice.
Top five were fifth Xiangdong Wang (4 dan UK), fourth Matti Siivola (5 dan
Finland), third Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan UK on 5/7), second Masanori Tanaka (5
dan Switzerland on 6/7) and winner Seong-June Kim (6 dan UK) who was unbeaten.
The only other player unbeaten was American 3 kyu Clay Smith who entered as a
European 4 kyu and ended up beating three 1 kyu players, winning best kyu award.

This year was to be the last for this competition, and it was held in Guiyang,
China. 14 programs competed, and as usual, the top finishers have full time
programmers. The lesson for the go programmers is that accurate life and death
reading has become really important. Many games between the top programs were
decided by life/death reading failures. The winner was Wulu, programmed by Lei
Xiuyu (China), in 2nd place Goemate by Chen Zhixing (China), and 3rd was Go4++
by Michael Reiss (Great Britain).

Gothenburg TT 04/11/00-05/11/00

31 players took part at the Swedish Toyota Tour Tournament. Britain's own
Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan) won first place yet again with 5/5. Second was
Vladimir Danek (6 dan Czechia) with 4/5 and Li Xiangdong (3 dan Sweden) topped
the group on 3/5 in third place.

Winners were Kwon Mi-Hyon and Rim Hyon-Chol, both students, from North Korea.
They beat South Korea in the last round. On 4/5 were pairs from Japan, Taipei
and South Korea. Best Europeans scoring 3/5 were France, Hungary and Poland.
Germany won a best dressed prize. The event was held in Tokyo at the Hotel
Metropolitan. The UK did not have a place this year.

24 top European players took part. Britain's Matthew Macfadyen beat Emil
Nijhuis, Alex Dinerstein, Geert Groenen, but lost to Ion Florescu who had
already beaten professional Catalin Taranu. The other semi-final was between Guo
Juan who had beaten Christian Pop and Robert Mateescu who had beaten Rob van
Zeijst. Guo won the final.

News

Youngest BGA Member: Congratulations to Alison and Simon Bexfield on the birth
of their daughter Charlotte Alison on 03/11/00, weight 6 lb 1 oz (2.75 kg).
Charlotte is not yet playing go but has already been enrolled as a BGA member
under the family membership scheme.

European Go Centre Award: 600 Euro are to be awarded for the best project on
spreading Go, for example teaching beginners, publicity, improving a Go club.
Entries must be submitted by April. For further information contact the Editor.

"Japan 2001" Japanese Festival: The first event involving the BGA now is on
23/06/01 in Canterbury. We are hoping to attend many more festivals around the
country. n the autumn we are hoping for two professional go players to visit
with a team of amateurs.

Mind Sports Olympiad: Volunteer(s) are wanted, to help plan and organise the
BGA event at the MSO 2001 in London. Contact the BGA Secretary.

All British players are welcome to join the Polish Go Association's Internet
Cup. Web site of the event is: www.pgaic.hg.pl or www.pgaic.gospecials.com.
The main prize is a teaching game with a top pro. Prizes for other winners are
Go books (up to 25 USD). They have players registered from 6 dan to 16 kyu from
Poland, Japan, China, Spain, Romania, Canada, and so on.

Their mission is to promote the enjoyment and fellowship of go, primarily over
the Internet, in the form of matches, tournaments, game reviews, teaching and
events. In addition, Wings produces English language go books aimed at serious
players who wish to improve their game. Wings uses various existing go servers,
such as KGS, the Zone and NNGS, to meet and to host events. The Wings Go Club is
the first virtual chapter of the American Go Association. Membership is free.
Their website is www.wingsgoclub.org and British players are invited to
participate in their activities. They have various on-line tournaments planned
for 2001. Contact John Stephenson

Asian Wanderer

[ This service is no longer available. ]

For Japanese cultural holidays including a home stay and sightseeing
contact asianwanderer.co.uk

European 2001 - Help required

The BGA is helping to run the European Go Congress in Dublin later in 2001.
Volunteers are needed to help run tournaments, registration and help with the
Journal. The tournament runs 22/07/01-04/08/01 and sponsorship is being provided
by Fujitsu-Siemens Computers.

Go Tuition

[ This service is no longer available. ]

National Trainer Matthew Macfadyen is running
private seminar days and a scheme to teach by email or post.